Debunking 5 Myths About Virtual Sales Training (A 5 Part Series), part 1

Before I debunk some of these misconceptions about Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT), let me simply define VILT.

Virtual Instructor-led Training should be thought of as another modality by which to deliver training content. In other words, one would use web meeting technology to deliver virtual training that would attempt to mimic what they do in a more traditional face-to-face instructor-led session.

While I think the training marketplace was already seeing a gradual shift to conducting more training online, the global economy is pushing training organizations to this venue much quicker and with higher expectations of what online virtual training should accomplish.

As a result, my company Sales Performance International, saw the need to become experts in this arena. We have spend a lot of time and effort to explore what constitutes effective virtual training and have developed and delivered virtual courseware. And through this process, we’ve overcome many of the myths that exist in our marketplace surrounding VILT. Over the next week I will walk through 5 of the most notorious myths.

Dragons = Myth, VILT = Real!Myth #1: We can simply upload our existing instructor-led PowerPoint decks and have our existing instructors deliver the training online using web-meeting technology.

While many companies may do this or attempt to do this, it doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful event. Most existing ILT materials have likely not been designed to be visually engaging and attention-retaining nor have they been created to promote participant interaction.

While instructors may be good in the face-to-face classroom, they require additional skills when delivering in a virtual environment. They must be interactive, ask lots of questions, know how to use the web-meeting tools (polls, chats, raise hands, annotation tools) to keep participants engaged. They must be prepared to manage any technical issues that arise. In other words, in the virtual environment facilitators must be able to manage the environment as well as facilitate the content.